Shawano Cleary | Special to the Kalamazoo GazetteCheese
please: The Nature Connection took first place in the retail and best
overall categories at the Great Winter Adventure Festival annual chili
cook-off in downtown Kalamazoo last Saturday.
The Italian restaurant Mangia Mangia battled the competition in a chili cook-off last Saturday in downtown Kalamazoo with a secret ingredient that’s an everyday item — root beer.

AND THE WINNERS ARE ...

Chili contest winners were voted on by people at the festival. Here’s the full list of winners:

The chili cook-off was part of Kalamazoo’s annual Great Winter Adventure Festival, which drew about 2,500 people. Mangia Mangia, 209 S. Kalamazoo Mall, won first place for chili in the restaurant category.

“People kept asking, ‘What is that flavor?’” said Mangia Mangia owner Emilio Dacoba. “People were guessing ginger, nutmeg, allspice. I guess the sassafras from the root beer was jumping out at them.”

Some patrons were so curious about what made the chili taste different that they were willing to come to Mangia Mangia a second time, on Monday for the restaurant’s special $3.50-spaghetti night, to find out. Dacoba made an announcement Monday night about the root beer.

The chili, made with Stewart’s Root Beer, is going to be offered during lunchtime at the eatery as a daily soup item.

“We made it with beef, pork and chorizo and needed to put a touch of sweetness in it,” Dacoba said. “Our new chef Al Woreman thought of the root beer. We decided to step outside of the box.”

Nature Connection, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall, which won for best overall chili and best retail store, used Cherry Republic Original Salsa to give its chili a unique flavor. The salsa is sold at the downtown Kalamazoo store.